August 26, 2008

7:15: I'm watching PBS tonight. C-SPAN last night. PBS has HD + longer coverage than the networks. (I don't have CNN HD.) The introductory material is about how last night somehow had to be soft-focus on Michelle and Teddy. But tonight, we'll have "red meat." Yes, I'm hoping for more excitement tonight.

7:24: A home-care worker is reading a script so robotically that it's kind of ironically human (and nice). Who would feel natural in that situation? Obama spent the day with her once, working at her job, to prove whatever that proves. The sound of talking in the hall almost drowns her out. Now, another working woman. This seems to be a parade of working women — in bright-colored suits that seem to be a tribute to Hillary's many suits.

7:28: That last woman had such a harsh voice. Now, with a deeper voice, it's Governor Janet Napolitano. The bright color for her bright-colored suit of the night is red. She's doing a nice job of laying into John McCain, but I feel these nagging feminist pains. Why is this woman — and why is Hillary — stuck on some special woman's night?

7:53: A man is talking. How is this happening? I rewind to see Jim MacNeil saying, "There's a Republican. Yes, a Republican." He's totally puzzled. It's the mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska, Jim Whitaker. Ooh, isn't he embarrassed to be relegated to Women's Night? He seems completely unfamiliar with his speech as he begins "We are Americans first" and pauses so you can tell he's thinking: American's first what? He goes on about energy. He explains why he's here: "to endorse Barack Obamas." That's not a typo. He says Barack Obamas.

8:04: Governor Kathleen Sebelius. John IMs, "I love her symphonies." Her bright-colored suit of the night is the reddest of all possible reds. She's out redding Napolitano. Against the bright blue background, it's like a psychedelic poster from 1968. It's searing my eyeballs. Yet her voice is so insanely flat. She speaks as if she's alone in a room memorizing the speech.The din of conversation in the hall is overwhelming. She's reciting words that were written to ravage John McCain, but with her delivery, it's quite comic. Well, there are actually punchlines all over the place, but I don't know if they'd make me laugh if she had a comic touch. It's funnier this way. But no one is listening.

8:16: Man, is this boring. Bring on the Hillary.

8:31: Lilly Ledbetter. She's surprised and "umbled." Great southern accent with a robotic but somehow impassioned delivery. She was the plaintiff in an important recent sex discrimination case, which she lost because she filed the lawsuit outside of the statutory limitations period. As she puts it, "Our Court sided with big business." But what she should say, to be honest, is: "Our Court declined to rewrite the statute to be fair to me." She goes on to blame the Senate for voting down the amendment that would make it possible to sue if you don't know about the discrimination when it first takes place, but then she says that Barack Obama as President will solve the problem: "As President, he has promised to appoint Justices who will enforce laws that protect everyday people." That doesn't really add up. But she's doing a good job of making us feel that the Democrats will protect the rights of working people.

8:41: The keynote speaker, the former governor of Virginia, Mark Warner. His theme is the future. Technology and economic development are important. He's trying to pump us up about that general idea. It's not at all clear that it has much to do with Obama. He says it doesn't matter if good ideas come from Democrats or Republicans. Now, he's boasting about the things he achieved as governor of Virginia, and it just makes me think about how Obama has no record at all of achievements like that.

9:15: Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachussetts. I'm getting nothing out of this. Reach for tomorrow... "Government is simply the name we use for the things we choose to do together." That's a quote from Barney Frank. Sorry. I detest sentimentality about government. I want more critical thinking and humility.

9:39: Here's the film about Hillary Clinton. It's mainly about the notion that women can achieve. She wanted to be an astronaut. She "dared to reach up." Her mother told her you can be anything you want. Lots of nice, smiley pictures, but it's generic pro-woman material. Let all women feel great. (But she lost!)

9:41: Chelsea Clinton looks gorgeous, with big hair and (finally!) a dark, skirted suit. She introduces her "hero" and her mother, Hillary Clinton. Hillary's dressed in bright orange. We see Bill, glowing and clapping and licking his lips and sticking his tongue out — in a somewhat reptilian way. Now, he's mouthing "I love you" over and over. Hillary is honored to be here, and the crowd goes wild.

10:00: Somewhere in there, Hillary said that she supports Barack Obama, but for the most part, it felt like another one of her campaign speeches. Anecdotes. Lists of problems, principles, and policies. We kept seeing closeups of Michelle Obama, who seemed to be closely monitoring the her husband's wily old opponent. And Hillary didn't do anything wrong, but did she help Barack Obama? She did say, addressing her supporters, "Were you in it just for me?" She answers that they must have supported her because they supported what she believed in and wanted to achieve. And therefore, we need to a Democrat in the White House. She says Obama's name a few times, but it seems to me as if it's just something that follows by reason of the desire to have a Democrat in the White House.

10: 30: And I'm not really sure exactly how she ended it, because I'm one of the viewers who used a DVR to record the show, and she spilled over into the next hour. They should have taken that into account.

302 comments:

They say she will turn herself into a ballistic missile of feminist jihad against McCain. Sounds like fun, to me. Strap a missile on her back and have her fly about the convention hall, whooping it up and finally exploding in a million fragments.

A little more seriously, don't you think that there is an implied slur against women, in that Night 1 was clearly intended to be woman-centric (Pelosi, Schlossberg, Michelle) and Night 2 is following that script?

Putting Bill Clinton and Obama on the last two nights gives the impression that the "heavy hitters" are male.

I realise Bill's ego had to be massaged AND he's the ex-President, but this was supposed to be Hillary's year, not his.

BTW, I could care less if women or men or blacks or whites or whatever go first. But the Democrats do.

Being reported that Tom Brokaw said on MSNBC last night that Obama was leading in the Colorado polls, but it was taken two weeks ago. A more recent Quinnipac poll has McCain up by 1% in Colorado (their sampling is far larger, too).

"Professor Dohrn has said of her Weatherman past, "We rejected terrorism. We were careful not to hurt anybody." Both assertions are false, however. Weatherman's twofold agenda was terrorism (which is why Charles Manson was Dohrn's hero) and war (the organization's very existence was launched with a formal "declaration of war"), and Dohrn periodically issued "war communiqués" to the public at large. The intention of the group was to shed their "white skin privilege" and launch a violent race war on behalf of Third World People. A Chicago district attorney named Richard Elrod was seriously injured in the Weatherman riot that erupted during the Chicago "Days of Rage" in October 1969, and he was paralyzed for life as a result. Dohrn later led a celebration of Elrod's paralysis by leading her comrades in a parody of a Bob Dylan song -- "Lay, Elrod, Lay." Moreover, law-enforcement authorities are still investigating a bombing in San Francisco that killed a policeman, for which Professor Dohrn is one of the suspects."

I spoke to a friend's dad who is a blue-collar guy, today. Though Republican, he loved Pelosi's speech. Note, he's Italian-American and that could've played a role -- but the point is he was in bed by the time Michelle came on.

Which Titus? I agree with Ann that there is a Titus and there is at least one fake Titus. While I was on sabbatical, that was definitely a fake Titus. The humor was different (and mostly lacking) as was all of the charm and absolutely all of the effectiveness. Titus is actually really good at making substantive points in a completely subversive manner, once you get past the shock and awe. The fake Titus? Weak, like dickless here.

Hey, Lily Ledbetter's speaking! I've got $5 that says she never once asks why it is that a Democratic Congress haven't passed that bill they promised to change the Civil Rights Act after the Supreme Court gave the existing text the only reasonable interpretation it can bear. How long has that bill now languished in a Democratic-controlled committee?

"Wait, so bleeper and michael, your big argument is that "Does any of you claim she is non-idiotic?" is *gramatically incorrect* That's really what you have?"

Again, pitiful. Almost shameful. And I bet they would feel bad that this is all they have brought to the plate if not for the fact that they are still pitching a shutout against you. Your big argument has been "You are jaw-droppingly stupid and trite. Seriously, you're an idiot." That's really what you have?

With lameness like that, you should sue. An Ivy League education should not leave you incapable of holding your own against a bunch of mixed-ideology yokels on a blogspot blog.

Do you actually need further explanation of the conclusion that commenting on the voices and pantsuit colors of convention speakers is trite?

Maybe she's confused by your claim because she knows what the word trite actually means. The word you're searching for is "trivial". The whole convention is trivial (and trite, for that matter), and most intelligent folk realize that. It is political theater, not a serious policy discussion.

On a side note, the whole "Ann is an idiot, how can she be a law professor" schtick is, itself, "lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use" and thus best described as "trite". Ironic, eh?

vbspurs said... "Alan Colmes just angrily parried that it'll be better at Invesco Field with 80,000 people watching Obama."

Not if it's raining it won't.

And you know what? I don't like the thought of 80,000 people cheering for a politician. Any politician. That's not a positive thing, it's a cult of personality, and the man who knew better than most where that leads died just the other week.

You know what? I'm becoming more convinced that the entire notion of a political party convention is not only useless but has gone beyond it's shelf life. Bringing the party faithful to gather in a 4-day rah-rah festival is pointless and meaningless at this point. If the DNC wanted to have the greenest convention (nauseating to even say), then their best bet would not to have had one at all. They would have had C-Span set up an online site and televise a webcast for each chairman of each delegate state to come online and cast their delegate vote for their respective candidate without all of the sundry bullshit that people would have to endure watching, much less listen to. The whole concept is past it's prime. Time to die.

In the words of the Joker, what this town needs is a better class of troll. We can all feel remorse that good money was spent on producing that level of developed intellectual capability. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, after all.

hey i live near harvard uif anyone should call themselves 'harvard' it's mebut 'harvard cockroach' sounded too pretentiousi mean i'd have to get a little maroon tiewith ver i tas on itnot to mention the blazerand anyway everyone knows that cockroaches don't go to harvardit's usually yale for us

but i do have a reply to 'haavahd'--as they say it around heah--althouse writes about all kinds of stuffeven insects yaydoesn't mean she's stoopidjust interested in everythingyou know i only have 960 brain cellsbut i get the most out of themwhich is obviously a lot more than you're managingwith a few hundred more

These people don't care about green, global warming, carbon credits, the environment in any way, shape or form, it's all nonsense designed for the open-headed susceptible masses and this continuous stream of helicopters proves it. And by open-headed I mean open at the bottom where things have a tendency to tumble out.

Dems are such pussies. Did anyone see Kucinich earlier today? He was fantastic and had the crowd on their feet. Sure you don't agree with him but he should be a prime time speaker. Who cares if he's outside the mainstream...maybe if the country saw someone inspiring thousands of people like he did in the Pepsi Center they'd at least be entertained. He has more charisma than any of the idiots I've seen tonight.

You cited an example of her making remarks you deem "trite". You seem to feel this reflects on her intelligence, presumably because -- as I noted above -- you don't know what the word "trite" means and have concluded it has something to do with stupidity. To this you added the unsupported assertion that her AutoAdmit and Obama-Ad posts were evidence of "vapid idiocy"; being as they lack any supporting argument, those assertions may also be ignored.

You also cited Ann's opinion that Taylor had ruled wrongly as evidence of Althousian "stupidity". Taylor was, of course, overturned on appeal, demonstrating that those who thought Taylor's ruling was correct (e.g., Glenn Greenwald) were wrong.

"Now, Obama himself has upped the ante by demanding that the conservative who funded the Ayers ad be criminally prosecuted:

Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly attacking the Dallas billionaire funding a harsh attack ad, Harold Simmons. "We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard (sic) Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits," he wrote.

Obama's suggestion that it is illegal for a 501(c)(4) entity to fund issue ads that are negative toward him appears ludicrous. Here's the real question, though: if Obama is elected President, will he appoint an Attorney General who will carry out politically-motivated prosecutions like the one he is now demanding?

Palladian says: You know, actual educated, intelligent people don't feel the need to constantly tell everyone that they're educated and intelligent. Nor would any actual Harvard graduate (as stupid and vain as Harvard graduates are) do anything as embarrassing as make their screen name "Harvard".

Very true. The general rule is for Harvard students or alums: (a) don't say where you went to / go to school, (b) if that fails, say you went to / go to school in Massachusetts, and (c) if both of those fail and you have to say where you went to / go to school, say that you went to Harvard. The buildup helps create the famous H-Bomb effect. The fact that this particular person calls himself "Harvard" and moons about the way he does leads me to believe he never went to school there, or was pretty low on the pecking order there.

Back to topic - good speech by Warner. Not a barn-burner, but a good mix of criticism of the GOP and support of the party. More importantly - many good shout-outs to the people of Virginia. Hopefully that will bring in a few thousand votes, which may be the margin of victory if things remain tight there.

Agreed in theory, Ann, though sadly I have nothing enlightening to say about the convention just now. (At the moment, I'm rereading "Bleak House" while watching the Red Sox beat the Yankees. More entertaining and a lot more edifying.)

As for Harvard, he's managing to eviscerate himself quite effectively with his increasingly desperate and ungrammatical comments. No help seems to be needed from the rest of us.

What outrageous claim? We know that Obama sought Ayers out for a political alliance re public education. And we have Ayers telling Hugo Chavez that the US education system is the best tool to advance Marxism.

That marks the end of an error. Oops, I mean, era. Not to worry. The Dems have several generations worth of video to drag out on every single occasion. As this occasion has already ably demonstrated. It's a requirement.

Pardon me for being rude, I have helicopters flying around my head, some so bold as to shine klieg lights directly into my courtyard from above illuminating my balcony like high noon on the equator, and that's not very nice.

Yeah Fen, Obama is a Marxist Muslim who wants to work with the Weather Underground to teach marxism/darwinism/gay agendaism to our kids through government schools. At least to those lucky kids not aborted by marxist/gay/darwinist baby killer "doctors."

The 2004 presidential election in Ukraine featured two main candidates. One was sitting Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, largely supported by Leonid Kuchma (the outgoing President of Ukraine who already served two terms in the office and was precluded from running himself due to the constitutional term limits). The opposition candidate was Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine faction in the Ukrainian parliament, also a former Prime Minister (1999–2001).

But I cannot contribute to a convention discussion because like joewxman, I am not watching it. But instead of Ice Road Truckers, I'm watching Charm City Cakes, or is that the same thing as the convention?

God told me it's OK to ditch pep rallies. Himself approves. Which caused some confusion so I go, "But , God, you won't get mad at me for ignoring the chosen one?" He goes, "Nah, he's chosen alright, but for something else." So I go, "OK, ta." And that was that.

As a resident of the Bay State, I can tell you that Deval Patrick has been the ultimate empty suit, and what many fear will be the template for Barak Obama.

Patrick screwed it up almost from day one. The Commonwealth needs money. Politicians LOVE sources of revenue. What was Deval Patrick's brilliant plan to rescue Massachusetts' shaky state revenues?

Casinos!!

Just what every progressive, thoughtful governor would propose, no? Especially when powerful members of the legislature are dead set against them. Absolutely brilliant.

Patrick did learn a little humility, I suppose, from this fiasco, and his proposals this year have an air of seriousness and reality about them. Mostly they're modest, long-overdue, and don't make him the object of scorn.

Massachusetts is a fairly inconsequential small state, so if the Governor screws up it's mostly an irritation, often amusing. On the other hand, if Obama pulls a Deval Patrick in the Presidency of the United States, God help us all.

This convention may turn into the biggest fairy tale we have ever seen in our lives. Hmmm. Al Gore got the Oscar for that silly comedy he made. Maybe, just maybe this convention will be nominated- twice- for an Emmy award in the fantasy TV category.

I read stories about the 1976 Republican Convention where Gerald Ford was nominated. He allowed Ronald Reagan to speak and many tell the story of how they had a collective moment of 'Oh, God, we've nominated the wrong guy.'

Having read through these comments, my conclusion is that this Harvard character is seething with rage underneath, and seriously resents the fact that Althouse has a widely-read blog and, really, a hell of a political and aesthetic platform.

Hillary takes the stage at a quarter to 11 for those of us on eastern time. Already feeling drowsy, this robotic woman...*yawn*...is saying nothing interesting...and I'm going to bed. I said last night that for the first time all year I thought McCain would win the election. After another bust of a night in the Obama convention, that seems even more true.

Nothing is happening at all at the Democratic Convention.

The robotic woman is still going on about lord knows what. Oh there, she's going on about health care, something she messed up. Yawn. Goodnight, robot phoney woman in the orange pants suit.

I doubt MSNBC will admit it, but the Obama convention is a complete disaster so far. The only news out of the convention that I can tell is that Michelle Obama doesn't hate America and the Obama family are not aliens from Mars.

Well, I already knew that.

McCain must be laughing his ass off behind closed doors right now. Half the convention is over and NOTHING OF NOTE HAS OCCURRED.

Oh, except the Obamas' youngest daughter was instructed to say stuff on stage that was intended to look unscripted.

Poor Maxine. She gets a lot of grief and at least some of it isn't earned because all the guesses aren't true.

I disagree. There's no way that Maxine could have gone so long without an allusion to cosmetics.

What a shrill intrusion, though. Hey, you idiots and morons! I am here to convince you that you are wrong.. I see this performance of a harbinger of many even shriller and holier-than-thou performances to come between now and the McCain's landslide.

This is the kind of person Obama desperately needed alongside her, and no wonder Michelle looked irritated beyond belief every time the camera panned to her -- the comparison between the two ladies is as chalk and cheese.

She wasn't Shrillary tonight. She wasn't the Hildabeast.

She was a historical figure of tremendous import, tying those women in 1842 to her tonight.

She is the very first totally unqualified woman to run for president. Hopefully, if we are to make history, some one with real, documented, experience could run. It would make no difference which party. Just a woman who has actually accomplished worthwhile goals; aside from standing by her man.

Way to give a rousing speech "endorsing" a candidate without ever saying anything actually about him!! Basically what Hillary did was remind us of how great SHE is, what SHE stands for/has accomplished, of all the ways SHE would like government to dominate us... And by the way, she urges us to vote for "not McCain". She could have given the same speech no matter who was running for President.

The Obama people must be SEETHING over this Hillary-centric but otherwise generic speech--especially since she got such a loud, enthusiastic, emotional response to it from the crowd.

Does anyone doubt Hillary would be leading McCain by double digits right about now? Haha....

Heaven forbid that people behave in a partisan manner at a political convention. Also, let's remember that all the nice-talk about Hillary that we've heard from Republicans for the past week or so has had one goal - to peel away Hillary voters from the Democrats. Hillary made it clear tonight that such flattery doesn't impress her, nor should it impress her supporters.

Great speech from Hillary tonight. It hit all the different markers it needed to. I'm proud to have supported her in the primary, and look forward to voting for Obama in the general.

See, the thing is, I highly doubt much of America is watching this convention. As I said, the networks came on at 10pm in the eastern time zone. It was a bunch of talking heads for 45 minutes. Then Hillary took the stage at like a quarter till 11.

Not many people watched this speech. What the Obama campaign needs is newsorthy soundbites and stuff to fill the Internet and news for the days ahead.

Each and every speech has been a bore.

I guess they must be assuming that Bill Clinton and then Barack Obama will hit it out of the park. That may be. As it stands so far, though, this convention will be quickly forgotten, and by week's end McCain will anounce his VP and that will be the news of the weekend. Obama had better hope McCain picks someone who blows up in his face, because McCain has the momentum now. McCain was good humored and charming on Leno last night!

Hillary didn't really sock McCain. Not ina way that will bleed. Just forgettable one-liners, like that Twin Cities - Bush and McCain are twins line. But what could Hillary do to make McCain bleed? She's already on record as a McCain fan..... So is Biden....Biden said he'd even run WITH McCain if he was asked.......

She wasn't a beneficiary of Affirmative Action, like Michelle was. She was a more than competent attorney, a First Lady of an US State for several years, a US First Lady for 8 years, and a Senator for another 8.

The Honorable Rahm EmanuelMember of the US House of Representatives, Illinois

Rahm Emanuel is not honorable. He is despicable. He lacks character and has no morals, ethics, values, or integrity. He is nothing more than a power hungry, rabid pit bull. He is a typical politically corrupt Chicago politician.

Seven Machos said... Peter -- She has been a senator for eight years, and you really can learn quite a bit as the queen.

Just saying. At some point, qualification does occur.

Please point to one specific piece of legislation that she authored? Please point to one specific thing she has done in the Senate that has impacted the lives of Americans in a positive manner. Please cite one specific thing she has done in the Senate except to show up, collect a pay check and run for president.

You know what bothers me about much of what's going on at this Democratic Convention? Obama came to my state of Ohio and took a very anti-free trade position. I know for a fact that Hillary knows this is wrongheaded. I suspect that Obama knows it is, too (given that representatives of his campaign told Canada not to pay attention to what he was spewing to Ohio voters). And I for sure know Bill Clinton doesn't agree with this.

To me this is a major issue. And a moral issue. I think free markets and free trade lift many millions of people around the world out of the worst poverty. But the Democrats are acting like free trade is evil. And then Michelle Obama tells us that the Obama campaign represents those who desire the world as it "should be" as opposed to the world as "it is." The world as it SHOULD BE should embrace free markets and free trade MORE, if we truly care about the impoverished of the world.

I don't know if I should get into that in this thread, but it really bugs me.

I'm going to ask my Obama-disliking, Hillary-loving co-worker I mentioned upthread what she thought of Hillary tonight. I think I'm going to get an earful of bitterness. This person also blames the Republicans for helping Obama, etc. You know that one.

Personally, I thought Hillary was terrific.

I'm not fond of any of the candidates, but there's nothing like seeing Hillary tonight and realizing the wrong people have been nominated to focus the mind.

CNN really down on her speech -- in terms of advancing Barack Obama's case.

She didn't mention his leadership abilities, at all, they say.

IMHO, the video preceeding her speech was almost a "Dear John" letter to Barack. She all but told him it's not working out, and she has to look out for her best interests first. She wanted to be the first something -- the first woman astronaut, the first woman President.

But first.

Second-place is not good enough for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

So nice to have met you, Barack, but I'm going to do my own thing from now on.

I didn't see the part about Hillary wanting to be the first. However, she needs to quit crying. She was the first First Lady that had her husband beat off in the sink in the Oval Office. That's impressive.